My 50th birthday will be here in less than six months and that’s cool, because 50 is one of those milestone numbers. I was thinking that maybe I should have a big bash. Then I remembered that parties are overwhelming for this introvert. Additionally, if all the people I know and would like to invite actually showed up, it would be extra stressful because some folks I haven’t seen in more than five, ten, years. That’s a lot of catching up try to do.

I had this idea that in the run up to my fiftieth I would try to schedule a coffee date every week with a person I hadn’t seen in years to try to catch up, so when I invite them to the big bash, it wouldn’t be so weird and stressful. Then I got a job and got too busy with that and planning trips. Plus I remembered that several of my efforts to reach out to people I miss fell flat and they never reached back.

I know so many people from so many different communities, and part of me wonders how that would work in a party format? Probably pretty nutty, like the time I invited both Sunni and Shi’a Muslimahs to a party and when the former wanted to put on music and dance, the latter all picked up and left. How would my alcohol-avoiding friends deal with a party where some people are heavily into drinking, for example?

Then I found out my birthday is happening during this year’s Critical NW camping trip. My first reaction to that was to see if maybe I could make up an excuse to not go and attend a Buddhist retreat instead. I think I have talked myself out of that plan. But I’m not sure how I feel about celebrating my birthday with only one my communities. In the end I will probably use my birthday as an excuse to show up late to Critical, after I get that 1/2 price spa entry fee from Olympus Spa. 😉 Then maybe there will be a surprise party waiting for me, because I hate surprises, but if I drop a hint about it online six months before, maybe I can have a non-surprise Surprise Party.

I was at Poke Square in Ballard getting my Poke on when I saw something I’d never seen before: a quail egg.

For $1 extra I decided to try it. I wasn’t expecting it to be raw. But there it was, staring up from my bowl.

I cautiously dumped the contents on to some lettuce and stuff. I didn’t have the nerve to just drink it like a shot. So I ate this raw yoke mixed up with other stuff in my bowl. Heck, I was eating raw fish, why not raw egg? It was…unobjectionable. I don’t think I would have liked it straight up though.

I got an Air Fryer recently and have been playing with it. It’s called an Air Fryer because people love fried food and the idea of “frying” with little to no oil really sells these gadgets. Really, it’s like a mini convection oven, so it’s good at making things crispy.

Here’s what I have tried so far:

Potato chunks

Spinach

Cauliflower

All three of these were done up simple. A splash of olive oil (or in the case the the spinach, a bit of oil spray) and some salt and maybe one or two other seasonings. I would have photos but they disappeared too fast. The spinach, I’m not kidding, was inside me and my kid in minutes.

These things were good, especially the spinach (if you like crispy kale you should try it for sure).

But tonight I took it to a whole new level and made the Buffalo Cauliflower Things from Ready or Not! the newest Nom Nom Paleo cook book. This is basically crisp-ish roasted cauliflower with Buffalo hot sauce. Sublime.

Have you made anything with an Air Fryer? Have a favorite recipe to share?